Afghan Taliban Order Dams on Kunar River, Raising Fears of New Water Rift with Pakistan
Move seen as bid for ‘water sovereignty’ could reshape South Asia’s fragile river politics amid rising border tensions
In a move that could reshape South Asia’s fragile water politics, Taliban supreme leader Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada has ordered immediate construction of dams on the Kunar River — a key tributary of Pakistan’s Indus basin feeding Pakistan’s irrigation and power systems.
Acting Energy Minister Abdul Latif Mansoor confirmed the directive, saying the project would begin “as soon as possible” using local Afghan contractors to secure the country’s “water sovereignty and energy independence.”
Afghanistan shares nine major river basins with Pakistan — three in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Kabul, Gomal, and Kurram) and six in Balochistan — supporting millions on both sides of the border. The Kabul–Kunar River system alone sustains a third of Afghanistan’s 43 million people and large parts of northern Pakistan.
The announcement, coming amid deadly border clashes with Pakistan, has triggered alarm in Islamabad, where officials fear the dams could choke off flows vital to irrigation and hydropower in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Kunar, known as the Chitral River in its upper reaches, originates in Pakistan’s Hindu Kush mountains, runs nearly 500 kilometers through Afghanistan, and rejoins the Kabul River before re-entering Pakistan — making it a rare waterway where both nations act as upper and lower riparians.
Afghanistan insists the dams will generate clean electricity and return water to the river with minimal downstream effects. But Pakistani officials and hydrologists remain unconvinced. “This could become another Indus-style dispute — but without a treaty to manage it,” said a senior water expert in Islamabad, noting that unlike India and Pakistan’s 1960 Indus Waters Treaty — which New Delhi suspended earlier this year — Afghanistan and Pakistan have no water-sharing framework at all.
Analysts warn that the Kunar River project could open a new front in the region’s strategic rivalries. Pakistan views Kabul’s unilateral water policy as echoing India’s aggressive posturing upstream, while Afghanistan frames it as a declaration of sovereignty after decades of dependence on imported power from Iran, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.
The Taliban’s decision revives plans first floated in 2023, with site surveys completed in mid-2025. For now, the Kunar River — 80 percent of which flows through Afghanistan — has become more than just a hydropower source. It is the newest flashpoint in a region where water, politics, and power are fast converging.
